Why We Publish Our Results

AOS believes that honesty and openness with respect to its clinical quality and weight loss results is critically important. Anyone considering undergoing obesity surgery, like any other type of surgery, should be fully aware of the risks as well as the benefits; you should also be aware of the "track record" of the surgeon and multi-disciplinary team, as no two services are identical.

The results shown below are for adjustable gastric banding surgery (i.e. restrictive surgery). The Avon Obesity Service uses the Midband® gastric band for all restrictive obesity surgery.

Weight Loss

Before having a gastric band fitted, the average weight of our patients is 124.5kg (19st 8lbs) and their average BMI is 44.4kg/m².

24 months after having a gastric band fitted, the average weight of our patients is 80.7kg (12st 9lb) and their average BMI is 29.9kg/m².

The graph on the right shows the average weight of our patients over the 24 month period:

On average, before banding, our patients had 55.6kg (8st 10lb) of excess weight - by 24 months after gastric banding, this drops to only 13.3kg (2st 1lb). This represents a 81.6 percent loss of excess weight over 2 years.

Medical literature¹ states that banded patients have lost an average of 50 percent of their excess weight at 24 months. Thus to date our patients have lost far more of their excess weight than has been published in the medical literature¹.

Clinical Quality at AOS

The Avon Obesity Service has offered obesity surgery and support since 2003. Over this period:

• None of our patients have had an infection from the band.
• None of our patients has contracted an MRSA infection.
• One patient at Spire has experienced local wound infections.
• None of our patients has experienced a gastric erosion.
• One patient had a faulty prosthesis and had this replaced at the manufacturer’s expense.
• One patient had a punctured catheter. This was rejoined below the puncture.
• One patient had a band slip 2 days following surgery.

Note: All statistics shown are copyrighted (©2007 Avon Obesity Service) and may not be quoted or reused elsewhere without the express permission of AOS.

¹ Buchwald H, Avidor Y, Braunwald E, et al. Bariatric surgery: a systematic review and meta-analysis. JAMA 2004;292:1724-1737. [Free Full Text]